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BEIRUT (AP) -- Hezbollah's leader blamed Sunni extremists
Friday for a car bombing that killed 22 people in a Shiite neighborhood
south of Beirut, heightening fears that Lebanon will be dragged further
into sectarian fallout from the war in neighboring Syria.
In
a defiant speech to his supporters, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said he was
prepared to double the number of his fighters in Syria if Thursday's
bombing turned out to be retaliation for Hezbollah's intervention
against Syrian rebels.
"If you think that by
killing our women and children ... and destroying our neighborhoods,
villages and cities we will retreat or back away from our position, you
are wrong," he said.
Nasrallah said
preliminary investigations showed Takfiri groups - a term for Sunni
radicals - were likely behind the bombing in a predominantly Shiite
suburb of Beirut, as well as other recent attacks.
"If
the battle with these terrorist Takfiris requires for me personally and
all of Hezbollah to go to Syria, we will go to Syria," he said.
Nasrallah,
who has rarely appeared in public since Hezbollah and Israel waged war
in 2006, spoke from a secret location to mark the anniversary of that
conflict. His remarks were carried by satellite to TV stations and to a
crowd of thousands gathered in a south Lebanese village.
Hours
earlier Hezbollah supporters fired shots in the air at emotional
funerals held for victims of the deadliest blast in Hezbollah's south
Beirut stronghold since 1985. Some 300 people were wounded.
As
forensic experts collected evidence at the scene of the explosion, and
security officials said they were investigating the possibility that the
attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
More
than a dozen charred cars were scattered on the street amid heavily
damaged buildings, preventing residents and shop owners from entering.
It
was the second bombing in the area in five weeks. On July 9, a car bomb
wounded more than 50 people. Since then, Hezbollah has tightened
security with checkpoints and parking limitations.
Hezbollah's strongholds have also been rocketed several times in the past few months.
Many in Lebanon see the attacks as retaliation for Hezbollah's armed support for President Bashar Assad in Syria's civil war.
Syrian
rebels have threatened to retaliate against Hezbollah for intervening
on behalf of the Assad regime in a conflict that is being fought on
increasingly sectarian lines, pitting Sunnis against Shiites.
Hezbollah
fighters played a key role in a recent regime victory in the town of
Qusair near the Lebanese border, and Syrian activists say Hezbollah
guerrillas are now aiding a regime offensive in the besieged city of
Homs.
Nasrallah said his group's participation
in the war was limited. He said the war against extremists bent on
destroying the region would be costly, "but less costly than for us to
be slaughtered like sheep."
He said there was
no evidence so far to prove that Israel was involved in this or the
other attacks, although he added that extremists could be working for
the Jewish state.
Meanwhile, survivors of
Thursday's bombing spoke appreciatively of Hezbollah's speedy rescue
efforts, and voiced support for the group and its leader, Nasrallah.
Zeinab
Shamseddine, who was among the wounded along with her two boys, said
that moments after the explosion, Hezbollah members burst into her
apartment amid the fire and black smoke and took away her sons for
treatment at the hospital, one of them for serious leg wounds.
Hassane Qassem, a 56-year-old retired soldier said his house was damaged but neither he nor his wife were hurt.
"We will always support Sheik Hassan," he said.
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